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Speciation and evolutionary genetics

This section considers studies into speciation and the role of inheritance and variation in individuals and among populations in evolution.

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  1. Content type: Research article

    Divergent selection has been shown to promote speciation in many taxa and especially in phytophagous insects. In the Ostrinia species complex, the European corn borer (ECB) and adzuki bean borer (ABB) are two sib...

    Authors: M. Orsucci, P. Audiot, S. Nidelet, F. Dorkeld, A. Pommier, M. Vabre, D. Severac, M. Rohmer, B. Gschloessl and R. Streiff

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:145

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  2. Content type: Review article

    Microhabitat changes are thought to be among the main drivers of diversification. However, this conclusion is mostly based on studies on vertebrates. Here, we investigate the influence of microhabitat on diver...

    Authors: Jonas Eberle, Dimitar Dimitrov, Alejandro Valdez-Mondragón and Bernhard A. Huber

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:141

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  3. Content type: Research article

    The processes leading to the diversity of over 7000 present-day languages have been the subject of scholarly interest for centuries. Several factors have been suggested to contribute to the spatial segregation...

    Authors: Terhi Honkola, Kalle Ruokolainen, Kaj J. J. Syrjänen, Unni-Päivä Leino, Ilpo Tammi, Niklas Wahlberg and Outi Vesakoski

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:132

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  4. Content type: Research article

    Genes underlying signal production and reception are expected to evolve to maximize signal detection in specific environments. Fireflies vary in their light signal color both within and between species, and th...

    Authors: Sarah E. Lower, Kathrin F. Stanger-Hall and David W. Hall

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:129

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  5. Content type: Research article

    Understanding the mechanisms that underlie the diversification of herbivores through interactions with their hosts is important for their diversity assessment and identification of expansion events, particular...

    Authors: Anna Skoracka, Luís Filipe Lopes, Maria Judite Alves, Adam Miller, Mariusz Lewandowski, Wiktoria Szydło, Agnieszka Majer, Elżbieta Różańska and Lechosław Kuczyński

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:122

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  6. Content type: Research article

    Populations that have repeatedly colonized novel environments are useful for studying the role of ecology in adaptive divergence – particularly if some individuals persist in the ancestral habitat. Such “conte...

    Authors: Matthew R. J. Morris, Ella Bowles, Brandon E. Allen, Heather A. Jamniczky and Sean M. Rogers

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:113

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  7. Content type: Research article

    One of the most perplexing questions in evolutionary biology is why some lineages diversify into many species, and others do not. In many cases, ecological opportunity has played an important role, leading to ...

    Authors: Kimberly L. Foster and Kyle R. Piller

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:116

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  8. Content type: Research article

    Species with a restricted geographic distribution, and highly specialized habitat and dietary requirements, are particularly vulnerable to extinction. The Bale monkey (Chlorocebus djamdjamensis) is a little-known...

    Authors: Addisu Mekonnen, Eli K. Rueness, Nils Chr. Stenseth, Peter J. Fashing, Afework Bekele, R. Adriana Hernandez-Aguilar, Rose Missbach, Tanja Haus, Dietmar Zinner and Christian Roos

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:106

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  9. Content type: Research article

    In host-parasite systems, relative dispersal rates condition genetic novelty within populations and thus their adaptive potential. Knowledge of host and parasite dispersal rates can therefore help us to unders...

    Authors: Anaïs S. C. Appelgren, Verena Saladin, Heinz Richner, Blandine Doligez and Karen D. McCoy

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:99

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  10. Content type: Research article

    The processes through which populations originate and diversify ecologically in the initial stages of adaptive radiation are little understood because we lack information on critical steps of early divergence....

    Authors: Darko D. Cotoras, Ke Bi, Michael S. Brewer, David R. Lindberg, Stefan Prost and Rosemary G. Gillespie

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:100

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  11. Content type: Research article

    The spatial distribution of genetic diversity and structure has important implications for conservation as it reveals a species’ strong and weak points with regard to stability and evolutionary capacity. Tempo...

    Authors: Alexander Jueterbock, James A. Coyer, Jeanine L. Olsen and Galice Hoarau

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:94

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  12. Content type: Research article

    Commercial whaling caused extensive demographic declines in many great whale species, including gray whales that were extirpated from the Atlantic Ocean and dramatically reduced in the Pacific Ocean. The Easte...

    Authors: Anna Brüniche-Olsen, Rick Westerman, Zuzanna Kazmierczyk, Vladimir V. Vertyankin, Celine Godard-Codding, John W. Bickham and J. Andrew DeWoody

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:87

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  13. Content type: Research article

    The common loon (Gavia immer) is one of five species that comprise the avian order Gaviiformes. Loons are specialized divers, reaching depths up to 60 m while staying submerged for intervals up to three minutes. ...

    Authors: Zach G. Gayk, Diana Le Duc, Jeffrey Horn and Alec R. Lindsay

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:64

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  14. Content type: Research article

    Hybridization is very common in plants, and the incorporation of new alleles into existing lineages (i.e. admixture) can blur species boundaries. However, admixture also has the potential to increase standing ...

    Authors: Martin P. Schilling, Zachariah Gompert, Fay-Wei Li, Michael D. Windham and Paul G. Wolf

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:61

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  15. Content type: Research article

    Differences in species richness among phylogenetic clades are attributed to clade age and/or variation in diversification rates. Access to ecological opportunity may trigger a temporary increase in diversifica...

    Authors: Diana Delicado, Torsten Hauffe and Thomas Wilke

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:55

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  16. Content type: Research article

    Introduced biological control agents have opportunities of population admixture through multiple introductions in the field. However, the importance of population admixture for their establishment success ofte...

    Authors: Hao-Sen Li, Shang-Jun Zou, Patrick De Clercq and Hong Pang

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:36

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  17. Content type: Research article

    Trypanosomatid parasites such as Trypanosoma spp. and Leishmania spp. are a major source of infectious disease in humans and domestic animals worldwide. Fundamental to the host-parasite interactions of these pote...

    Authors: Sara Silva Pereira and Andrew P. Jackson

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:31

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  18. Content type: Research article

    Maintaining variation in immune genes, such as those of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), is important for individuals in small, isolated populations to resist pathogens and parasites. The golden snub-n...

    Authors: Pei Zhang, Kang Huang, Bingyi Zhang, Derek W. Dunn, Dan Chen, Fan Li, Xiaoguang Qi, Songtao Guo and Baoguo Li

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:29

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  19. Content type: Research article

    Marine threespine sticklebacks colonized and adapted to brackish and freshwater environments since the last Pleistocene glacial. Throughout the Holarctic, three lateral plate morphs are observed; the low, part...

    Authors: Kjartan Østbye, Annette Taugbøl, Mark Ravinet, Chris Harrod, Ruben Alexander Pettersen, Louis Bernatchez and Leif Asbjørn Vøllestad

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:14

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  20. Content type: Research article

    Whole genome duplication plays a central role in plant evolution. There are two main classes of polyploid formation: autopolyploids which arise within one species by doubling of similar homologous genomes; in ...

    Authors: Jonna S. Eriksson, Filipe de Sousa, Yann J. K. Bertrand, Alexandre Antonelli, Bengt Oxelman and Bernard E. Pfeil

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:9

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  21. Content type: Research article

    Fungal plant pathogens secrete a large arsenal of hydrolytic enzymes during the course of infection, including peptidases. Secreted peptidases have been extensively studied for their role as effectors. In this...

    Authors: Parvathy Krishnan, Xin Ma, Bruce A. McDonald and Patrick C. Brunner

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:7

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  22. Content type: Research article

    The genomes of all vertebrates harbor remnants of ancient retroviral infections, having affected the germ line cells during the last 100 million years. These sequences, named Endogenous Retroviruses (ERVs), ha...

    Authors: Nicole Grandi, Marta Cadeddu, Jonas Blomberg, Jens Mayer and Enzo Tramontano

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:6

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  23. Content type: Research article

    Populations of herbivorous insects may become genetically differentiated because of local adaptation to different hosts and climates as well as historical processes, and further genetic divergence may occur fo...

    Authors: You-Zhu Wang, Bing-Yan Li, Ary Anthony Hoffmann, Li-Jun Cao, Ya-Jun Gong, Wei Song, Jia-Ying Zhu and Shu-Jun Wei

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:265

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  24. Content type: Research Article

    Characterizations of the dynamics of hybrid zones in space and time can give insights about traits and processes important in population divergence and speciation. We characterized a hybrid zone between tanage...

    Authors: Andrea Morales-Rozo, Elkin A. Tenorio, Matthew D. Carling and Carlos Daniel Cadena

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:257

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  25. Content type: Research article

    The transition to a parasitic lifestyle entails comprehensive changes to the selective regime. In parasites, genes encoding for traits that facilitate host detection, exploitation and transmission should be un...

    Authors: B. Feldmeyer, D. Elsner, A. Alleman and S. Foitzik

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:237

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  26. Content type: Research article

    Genetically divergent cryptic species are frequently detected by molecular methods. These discoveries are often a byproduct of molecular barcoding studies in which fragments of a selected marker are used for s...

    Authors: Anne Thielsch, Alexis Knell, Ali Mohammadyari, Adam Petrusek and Klaus Schwenk

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:227

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  27. Content type: Research article

    Interspecies animal hybrids can employ clonal or hemiclonal reproduction modes where one or all parental genomes are transmitted to the progeny without recombination. Nevertheless, some interspecies hybrids re...

    Authors: Dmitry Dedukh, Spartak Litvinchuk, Juriy Rosanov, Dmitry Shabanov and Alla Krasikova

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:220

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  28. Content type: Research article

    Homoplasy affects demographic inference estimates. This effect has been recognized and corrective methods have been developed. However, no studies so far have defined what homoplasy metrics best describe the e...

    Authors: Diego Ortega-Del Vecchyo, Daniel Piñero, Lev Jardón-Barbolla and Joost van Heerwaarden

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:213

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  29. Content type: Research article

    Pleistocene climatic fluctuations are known to be an engine of biotic diversification at higher latitudes, but their impact on highly diverse tropical areas such as the Andes remains less well-documented. Spec...

    Authors: Balaji Chattopadhyay, Kritika M. Garg, Chyi Yin Gwee, Scott V. Edwards and Frank E. Rheindt

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:210

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  30. Content type: Research article

    For Lake Victoria cichlid species inhabiting rocky substrates with differing light regimes, it has been proposed that adaptation of the long-wavelength-sensitive (LWS) opsin gene triggered speciation by sensory d...

    Authors: Yohey Terai, Ryutaro Miyagi, Mitsuto Aibara, Shinji Mizoiri, Hiroo Imai, Takashi Okitsu, Akimori Wada, Shiho Takahashi-Kariyazono, Akie Sato, Herbert Tichy, Hillary D. J. Mrosso, Semvua I. Mzighani and Norihiro Okada

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:200

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  31. Content type: Research article

    Satellite DNAs (stDNAs) are highly repeated sequences that constitute large portions of any genome. The evolutionary dynamics of stDNA (e.g. copy number, nucleotide sequence, location) can, therefore, provide ...

    Authors: Ornjira Prakhongcheep, Watcharaporn Thapana, Aorarat Suntronpong, Worapong Singchat, Khampee Pattanatanang, Rattanin Phatcharakullawarawat, Narongrit Muangmai, Surin Peyachoknagul, Kazumi Matsubara, Tariq Ezaz and Kornsorn Srikulnath

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:193

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  32. Content type: Research article

    Past events like fluctuations in population size and post-glacial colonization processes may influence the relative importance of genetic drift, migration and selection when determining the present day pattern...

    Authors: Maria Cortázar-Chinarro, Ella Z. Lattenkamp, Yvonne Meyer-Lucht, Emilien Luquet, Anssi Laurila and Jacob Höglund

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:189

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  33. Content type: Research article

    Small insertions and deletions occur in humans at a lower rate compared to nucleotide changes, but evolve under more constraint than nucleotide changes. While the evolution of insertions and deletions have bee...

    Authors: Manjusha Chintalapati, Michael Dannemann and Kay Prüfer

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:179

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  34. Content type: Research article

    Demographic bottlenecks erode genetic diversity and may increase endangered species’ extinction risk via decreased fitness and adaptive potential. The genetic status of species is generally assessed using neut...

    Authors: Elena Marmesat, Krzysztof Schmidt, Alexander P. Saveljev, Ivan V. Seryodkin and José A. Godoy

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:158

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  35. Content type: Research article

    The Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) plays a central role in immunity and has been given considerable attention by evolutionary ecologists due to its associations with fitness-related traits. Songbirds h...

    Authors: Anna Drews, Maria Strandh, Lars Råberg and Helena Westerdahl

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:152

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  36. Content type: Research article

    Triticeae, the tribe of wheat grasses, harbours the cereals barley, rye and wheat and their wild relatives. Although economically important, relationships within the tribe are still not understood. We analysed...

    Authors: Nadine Bernhardt, Jonathan Brassac, Benjamin Kilian and Frank R. Blattner

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:141

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  37. Content type: Research article

    Evolutionary shifts in bacterial virulence are often associated with a third biological player, for instance temperate phages, that can act as hyperparasites. By integrating as prophages into the bacterial gen...

    Authors: Carolin C. Wendling, Agnes Piecyk, Dominik Refardt, Cynthia Chibani, Robert Hertel, Heiko Liesegang, Boyke Bunk, Jörg Overmann and Olivia Roth

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:98

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  38. Content type: Research article

    Many fungal species occur across a variety of habitats. Particularly lichens, fungi forming symbioses with photosynthetic partners, have evolved remarkable tolerances for environmental extremes. Despite their ...

    Authors: Francesco Dal Grande, Rahul Sharma, Anjuli Meiser, Gregor Rolshausen, Burkhard Büdel, Bagdevi Mishra, Marco Thines, Jürgen Otte, Markus Pfenninger and Imke Schmitt

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:93

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  39. Content type: Research article

    Very little is known on how changes in circadian rhythms evolve. The noctuid moth Spodoptera frugiperda (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) consists of two strains that exhibit allochronic differentiation in their mating ti...

    Authors: Sabine Hänniger, Pascaline Dumas, Gerhard Schöfl, Steffi Gebauer-Jung, Heiko Vogel, Melanie Unbehend, David G. Heckel and Astrid T. Groot

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:68

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  40. Content type: Research article

    Measuring the evolutionary rate of reproductive isolation is essential to understanding how new species form. Tempo calculations typically rely on fossil records, geological events, and molecular evolution ana...

    Authors: Ashley Saulsberry, Marisa Pinchas, Aaron Noll, Jeremy A. Lynch, Seth R. Bordenstein and Robert M. Brucker

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:37

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  41. Content type: Research article

    The analysis of hybrid zones is crucial for gaining a mechanistic understanding of the process of speciation and the maintenance of species boundaries. Hybrid zones have been studied intensively in terrestrial...

    Authors: Corinna Breusing, Robert C. Vrijenhoek and Thorsten B. H. Reusch

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:13

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  42. Content type: Research article

    The evolutionary dynamics of repeat sequences is quite complex, with some duplicates never having differentiated from each other. Two models can explain the complex evolutionary process for repeated genes—conc...

    Authors: Vanessa Romero, Kazuyoshi Hosomichi, Hirofumi Nakaoka, Hiroki Shibata and Ituro Inoue

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:10

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  43. Content type: Research article

    As bats have recently been described to harbor many different viruses, several studies have investigated the genetic co-variation between viruses and different bat species. However, little is known about the g...

    Authors: Tanja K. Halczok, Kerstin Fischer, Robert Gierke, Veronika Zeus, Frauke Meier, Christoph Treß, Anne Balkema-Buschmann, Sébastien J. Puechmaille and Gerald Kerth

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:5

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  44. Content type: Research article

    Ancient Lake Ohrid, located on the Albania-Macedonia border, is the most biodiverse freshwater lake in Europe. However, the processes that gave rise to its extraordinary endemic biodiversity, particularly in t...

    Authors: Björn Stelbrink, Alena A. Shirokaya, Kirstin Föller, Thomas Wilke and Christian Albrecht

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2016 16:273

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  45. Content type: Research article

    Evolutionary histories of parasite and host populations are intimately linked such that their spatial genetic structures may be correlated. While these processes have been relatively well studied in specialist...

    Authors: Benoit Talbot, Maarten J. Vonhof, Hugh G. Broders, Brock Fenton and Nusha Keyghobadi

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2016 16:268

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  46. Content type: Research article

    As global climate change transforms average temperature and rainfall, species distributions may meet, increasing the potential for hybridization and altering individual fitness and population growth. Altered r...

    Authors: Zachary Teitel, Agnieszka Klimowski and Lesley G. Campbell

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2016 16:266

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  47. Content type: Research article

    A common, 32kb deletion of LCE3B and LCE3C genes is strongly associated with psoriasis. We recently found that this deletion is ancient, predating Human-Denisovan divergence. However, it was not clear why negativ...

    Authors: Petar Pajic, Yen-Lung Lin, Duo Xu and Omer Gokcumen

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2016 16:265

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  48. Content type: Research article

    DNA barcoding has demonstrated that many discrete phenotypes are in fact genetically distinct (pseudo)cryptic species. Genetically identical, isogenic individuals, however, can also express similarly different...

    Authors: Chen Wang, Shobhit Agrawal, Jürgen Laudien, Vreni Häussermann and Christoph Held

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2016 16:258

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  49. Content type: Research article

    The identification, description and understanding of protein-protein networks are important in cell biology and medicine, especially for the study of system biology where the focus concerns the interaction of ...

    Authors: Erli Pang, Yu Hao, Ying Sun and Kui Lin

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2016 16:260

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  50. Content type: Research article

    RAD-seq is a powerful tool, increasingly used in population genomics. However, earlier studies have raised red flags regarding possible biases associated with this technique. In particular, polymorphism on res...

    Authors: Marie Cariou, Laurent Duret and Sylvain Charlat

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2016 16:240

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